Volume : VI, Issue : VIII, August - 2017
ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF A BRIDGE I-SECTION BEAM
B. K. Vishwanath
Abstract :
Myths are generally accepted as the outcome of the primitive seasonal rituals, concerned with deities and demi-gods and consequently justified as untrue, fictitious and far removed from reality and history. In the context of Indian dramatic art myths play an integral and pivotal role for promoting a symbolical truth with higher degree of reality. Girish Karnad, however, following the Vedic interpretation – pura api navam (‘though old, ever new’), holds that the significance of myth is universal and thus can be effectively employed to interpret and express meaning for the contemporary life. As myths represent ‘collective consciousness’ of a culture, he thought, can inculcate moral, religious or socio-cultural values; and also that analogically mythical interference can link the present human condition with the eternal and the universal. In The Fire and the Rain the age-old story of ‘Yavakrita’ has been used to ing out the consequences of ‘knowledge without wisdom’ and of ‘power without integrity’. But amid the interplay of powerful passions and emotions of the mythic characters, the play serves to deconstruct the one dimensional nature of patriarchal domination and casteism rooted in contemporary Hindu society. If ‘Realism’ means ‘objective experience’ and ‘social truth’ then the play becomes a powerful weapon for exposing and demolishing social evils and injustices: it radically showers invectives against the vanity of the upper priestly class, their jealousy and possessiveness in love, treachery and mistrust, revenge and power-politics, their immorality and meaningless offerings without social concern. In the elaboration of the myth the fire sacrifice may connote any devotional activities, like academic studies, marriage or the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the deprivation and penance is afterall the reality of a drought-affected land and the starvation and suffering of a famine-hit area.
Keywords :
Myth mythopoeia ‘Vedic’ realism egocentric patriarchy power-politics castism ‘Yajna’ ‘Universal Knowledge’ ‘fire-sacrifice’ paradigm nativistic
Article:
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DOI : https://www.doi.org/10.36106/gjra
Cite This Article:
Arindam Ghosh, Karnad‘s The Fire and the Rain‾an Interplay of Ritual, Pro-social Myths and Dramatic Realism, GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS : VOLUME-6, ISSUE-8, AUGUST-2017
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References :
Arindam Ghosh, Karnad‘s The Fire and the Rain‾an Interplay of Ritual, Pro-social Myths and Dramatic Realism, GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS : VOLUME-6, ISSUE-8, AUGUST-2017